“If you want to continue the”: Harry Truman, Informal Remarks in Washington, June 10, 1948, Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/124/informal-remarks-washington.
“He is making his attack”: “Truman Tackles Congress on Cross-Country Tour,” Christian Science Monitor, June 5, 1948.
“The President is blackguarding”: Redding, Inside the Democratic Party, p. 178.
“Please wire the Democratic”: Ibid.
13. “We Have a Dreamboat of a Ticket”
I’M ON THE DEWEY TEAM: Campaign materials from Inter Office Correspondence, F. L. Carlisle to Herbert Brownell et al., May 11, 1948, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 39, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester.
“The general idea of the”: Memorandum, Mrs. Charles W. Weis Jr. to Mrs. Carl T. Hogan, May 27, 1948, ibid.
“Cheese at Stassen’s”: David Pietrusza, 1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory and the Year That Transformed America’s Role in the World (New York: Union Square, 2011), p. 176.
“Shake his trunk”: “Dewey, Taft Arrive at GOP Convention,” Washington Post, July 21, 1948.
“The great silent star of the”: “Truman—Source of All Republican Joy,” Atlanta Constitution, June 24, 1948.
“We are assembled in this”: Joe Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960), p. 163.
“What was unique about”: Ibid.
“In a few minutes I began”: Donald A. Ritchie, Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 185.
“we were conducting our affairs”: Martin, My First Fifty Years, p. 163.
“gone goose”: “Truman ‘a Gone Goose’ La Luce Quips to GOP,” Boston Daily Globe, June 22, 1948.
“Let’s waste no time”: Ibid.
“Harold . . . you have no idea”: Pietrusza, 1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory, p. 192.
“[Dewey’s] ‘blitz’ was a thing”: Diary entry of Arthur H. Vandenberg, June 20–25, 1948, in Arthur H. Vandenberg Jr., ed., The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952), p. 438.
“I look just awful”: Pietrusza, 1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory, p. 180.
“It has been a difficult”: “It’s Dewey on the 3rd Ballot,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 25, 1948.
“Will you excuse me for”: “Remarks by Governor Thomas E. Dewey on the Marquee of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, Philadelphia, PA, Thursday Evening, June 24,” Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 2, Box 117.
“We were all sworn to”: Diary entry of Arthur H. Vandenberg, June 20–25, 1948, in Vandenberg, The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, p. 439.
“Let’s not be mealy-mouthed”: Abels, Out of the Jaws of Victory, p. 66.
“We should have notes”: Ibid.
“Well, how about Charlie?”: Pietrusza, 1948: Harry Truman’s Improbable Victory, p. 180.
“It is the unanimous opinion”: “Calif. Governor’s Easy Nomination Called Only Real Convention Upset,” Washington Post, June 26, 1948.
“You’re running out on”: Abels, Out of the Jaws of Victory, p. 67.
“If this is to be the”: Diary entry of Arthur H. Vandenberg, undated, in Vandenberg, The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, p. 436.
“We have a dreamboat”: Richard Norton Smith, Thomas E. Dewey and His Times (New York: Touchstone, 1982), p. 501.
“You will make a great”: Tom Warren to Thomas Dewey, June 25, 1948, Thomas E. Dewey Papers, Series 10, Box 44.
“Your victory . . . is practically”: B. B. Hickenlooper to Thomas Dewey, June 30, 1948, ibid., Series 5, Box 84.
“in the decisive phase of”: Michael Burgan, The Berlin Airlift (Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point, 2007), p. 25.
“not as serious as indicated”: Cabinet Meeting Minutes, June 25, 1948, Matthew Connelly papers, Box 2, Truman archives.
“A very serious situation”: Ibid.
“improvised ‘airlift’”: Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, vol. 2, Years of Trial and Hope, 1946–1952 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956), p. 123.
14. “With God’s Help, You Will Win”
“Nothing quite so strange”: “Thomas L. Stokes: Will ‘Ike’ Come to the Rescue?,” Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1948.
“every seasoned political leader”: “The Washington Merry-Go-Round: Leaders See Truman Defeated,” Washington Post, July 7, 1948.
“Doublecrossers all”: Diary entry of Harry Truman, July 6, 1948, Post Presidential File, Box 643, Truman archives.
“This job gets worse every”: Harry Truman to Bess Truman, July 5, 1947, Papers of Harry S. Truman Pertaining to Family, Business, and Personal Affairs, Box 15.
“I’ve made my decision”: Diary entry of Harry Truman, July 19, 1948, Post Presidential File, Box 643, Truman archives.
“The glum resignation”: “Democrats in the Dumps,” Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1948.
“There never has been anything”: “State of the Convention Operation Underdog,” Christian Science Monitor, July 12, 1948.
“a number two man”: Diary entry of Harry Truman, July 12, 1948, Post Presidential File, Box 643, Truman archives.
“I stuck my neck all”: Diary entry of Eben Ayers, July 13, 1948, in Eben A. Ayers, Truman in the White House: The Diary of Eben A. Ayers (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), pp. 265–66.
“Why do they hate me”: “The Washington Merry-Go-Round: A Lonely Man Meditates on Hate,” Washington Post, August 8, 1948.
“This election can only be”: “Memorandum: Should the President Call Congress Back?,” June 29, 1948, Clark Clifford papers, Box 33, Truman archives.
“He said he had made”: Diary entry of Eben Ayers, July 13, 1948, in Ayers, Truman in the White House, pp. 265–66.
“As . . . we started to”: Ibid.
“you couldn’t have gotten”: Oral History Interview with Brigadier General Louis H. Renfrow (transcript), 1971, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 85.
“many things: politics, trivia”: Alben W. Barkley, That Reminds Me (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954), p. 203.
“It seemed like almost”: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Nixon (transcript), 1970, Oral History Interviews, Truman archives, p. 571.
“The south is no longer”: “11 States Support Georgian,” Atlanta Constitution, July 15, 1948.
“Mississippi has gone”: “Truman and Barkley Nominated; Two Dixie Delegations Walk Out,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1948.
“He can’t win”: “Truman Calls Congress in GOP Dare,” Atlanta Constitution, July 15, 1948.
“Our fight is the fight”: “Delegates Look for Spectacle and Find One,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 15, 1948.
“A live donkey was led”: “Confederate Flag Waves as South Names Russell,” Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1948.
“We may well be watching”: “Washington Calling: Democratic Break-up?,” Washington Post, March 9, 1948.
“Thank you, thank you”: “Acceptance Speech of the President at the Democratic National Convention, Convention Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1948,” Public Papers, Truman archives, https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/research-files/presidents-acceptance-speech. See also “1948 Truman DNC Acceptance Speech,” YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-7kpqhnXHE.
“The delegates that evening”:
